Banking
Guardian (Bank no. 24) ended 2005 with a pre-tax profit of 56 million (m)shillings.
K-Rep (No. 29 ) pre tax profit was cut in half from 110m to 48m by increased staff and operating expenses.
Oriental (No. 38) The former Delphis and former BCCI is still in the red but showed improvement in reducing its pre-tax loss from 369m to 86m. The Bank also re-capitalized from 376m to 723m.
Dubai (No. 40) Pre-tax profit was about 30m same as in ’04 at the high interest margin bank.
Housing
New housing
(i) 240 houses in Ndumberi, Kiambu, 24 km from Nairobi comprising 3 and 4 bedroom (br) bungalows.
(ii) Phase 1 of Diamond Park housing estate comprising 155 houses in South B next to balozi & hazina estates. The final complex will have 850 4-br maisonettes.
No boom
According to the Sunday Nation the so-called Nairobi property boom was only a speculative bubble that was confined to upmarket areas like kileleshwa and kilimani. A true boom would have seen housing prices appreciate in all parts and in all housing segments in the city.
Agriculture
Tetu kicking
Tetu coffee is still alive despite almost three years of frustrating hurdles. The company has applied for a coffee buyer/dealer license as well as packers & roasters license to process 400,000 kilos of coffee per year.
Relief for farmers
Good news for farmers as a new scheme will enable them to be paid on time. It involves the Agricultural Finance Corporation, Kenya Seed Company, and National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
This will help in the perennial problem of late payments that leave farmers at the mercy of middle-men who extend goods to unpaid (and broke) farmers at exorbitant rates to plant as they await late payments for their previous seasons crop. Also the NCPB has been losing out on deliveries as farmers prefer to sell maize to middlemen who, even though they pay less per bag than NCPB, give cash upfront and collect crops directly at the farms. Farmers are then able to use the money to meet holiday expenses, school fees etc.
It would also be nice to see more trade finance banks get involved with similar products to farmers.
The scheme looks good on paper, but in real life, there are crafty Kenyans who convert schemes into scams e.g. Goldenberg and now others who have imported luxury cars bila duty under a simba scheme that was meant to enable faster clearing of vehicles.
ICT
Bigger site
Alexa.com has sparked a media war between the nation (rank 12,963) and the standard (rank 13,277) over who has Kenya’s leading online media website.
Mobile office
Safaricom has introduced Pocket Office – a mobile email solution.
Consulting opportunities
(i) The East African Portland Cement company is inviting bids for the design, supply, and installation of a new 80-tph cement mill factory. Apply by April 26.
(ii) The GJLOS program is inviting bids for consultants to supply, install, and maintain an intelligence and investigation application system for the Kenya Anti Corruption Authority. Apply to KPMG by April 28.
At the movies
Saw, and enjoyed, Syriana over the weekend which was a very complex & nice movie done by the writer of Traffic and the similarities are apparent in the parallel inter-weaving storylines. However, after watching it, I must say the George Clooney did not deserve a best-supporting actor award and that better performances were given, within the movie by both Matt Damon who plays an energy trader and Alexander Siddig, who plays the prince who plans to save his oil-rich country.
I agree that Alexander Siddig did the best job in the film…Clooney just won b/c I feel like they had to give him the award for something and they weren’t patient enough to wait for another year.
–RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
Hi, thx 4 constant infor, great work!
Where is the list for the banks and their No’s? e.g. Guardian (Bank no. 24), Dubai (No. 40)
Can a commodities board be established in kenya, that will eliminate the middle men and bring some competitiveness in the agriculture industry ? the parastatals are killing farmers morale due to the fact that they have no competition and they treat farmers like they are actually doing them a favor by buying their produce at low prices.we should look into establishing a futures and commodities board. any suggestions Bankele?
Nice post
I think they gave George Cloonet best actor since they did not want to give him Best Director for Good luck and Good night. It is coming though, from a pop culture perspective, George Clooney is about as good as you can get. He is essentially a trademark and a brand in the industry and the Academy cannot afford to cross him. He has to much pull at the theatre especially with the ladies.
Sooner or later, he will get the director Oscar too.
Great post.
Jaba Boeku: list is coming up
mashatall: a trade finance bank and government support policies e.g. for Tanzania and Rwanda coffee farmers will save farmer a lot of financial pain.
Ntwiga and RC: Judges should vote appropriate awards.
Thanks for the constant info B
I have banked with Akiba Bank for the last decade and i still dont have enough info on them. Currently it is called EABS Bank.
Kindly share your info i sure will be glad.
Hey Banks, maybe there is something wrong with me but i think traffic was a disaster movie, too long and too slow.
Thanks for saving me from wataching syriana.